Spread of Islamic Culture - A Complete History

The vast and united Islamic empire was fragmented and decentralized at the end of the  Abbasid caliphate. Previously, Abbasids were under the control of different groups. During that period,  state power declined while compared to religious institutions. Islamic countries were involved in trade and helped for the spread of Islamic culture, and later it was spread throughout the world. These Islamic cultures flourished and crystallized from the ninth century to the twelfth century. 

In the early days, only Islamic culture had the concept of military expansion. Later many people got converted and returned to Islam culture. The Spread of Islamic culture also facilitated the change of the political structure of Islamic society, trade and missionaries. As a result, we got different interpretations of Islam and created many different Islamic societies. This article will provide you with a complete history of the spread of Islamic culture in India. 

Decentralization and Fragmentation of Islamic Culture

The  Abbasid dynasty or Abbasids is one of the largest empires in the world. This empire kept more than four thousand miles under its control. But they faced huge difficulties with maintaining their empire. Abbasid usually forced non-Muslims to convert to Islam and also collected taxes from non-muslims.  This was not decreased even when it was taken to the court of Abbasid. The religious authorities of Abbasid also stayed more powerful for religious scholars of the new religious institutions, which pushed people into the caliphate system. 

Later, people highly centralized in the Abbasid caliphate were later fragmented into smaller independent political structures. Further, the Abbasid power was diminished by the new political structures. The political destabilization and decentralization of  Addasid led to the spread of Islam beyond the massive  Abbasid empire’s borders. Even the regional rulers cannot control these vast territories in a single direction. For example, The rulers of North Africa, Fatimids and Berber dynasties expanded their territories into Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Ghaznavids later extended into India. 

Origin of Diverse Religious and State Institutions from Islamic Culture 

After decentralization and fragmentation, modern Islam was divided into many sections. Later, various sections of the Islam culture led to various developments. Then the sections were kept in the early history of Islamic culture. The vast spread of Islamic culture took centuries for different religions to interpret them and become organizations.  As religious scholars gathered histories, laws and philosophical treatises, the main schools of legal thought emerged. 

Likewise, the religious institutions gained stability, and the political establishments became more unstable. Meanwhile, Muslim Turks migrated and entered into Islamic empires also other groups like Mongols invaded the Islamic empires. The battle between Muslims and Christians of western Europe also created more political instability with the interrogation of the Crusades.  

Some political changes also transformed Islamic political structures and gave new leaders to emerge beyond the traditional Arab Muslim elite. Kurdish leaders like Saladin, belonging to the Ayyubid dynasty, also became incredibly influential people. The Turkish origin Mamluk slave-soldiers also gained power. In 1258, Mongol power in Baghdad came to the end of the five centuries of the Abbasid’s dynasty. In the end, multiple small states have emerged from the Abbasids. 

The vacuum created by the fall of the Abbasids was filled by the alternative social and political structure. One of the alternative structures was Sufi religious institutions. Sufi missionaries took responsibility for any changes in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. The religious ideas shared by other religions like Christianity and Judaism also made changes in the Islamic culture. The transformation of pagan and polytheistic religions was more difficult. Sufi missionaries travelled through these difficulties adeptly and made Islam for inviting changes with the existing religious traditions. 

This adoption led to a mix of Islamic traditions with pre-Islamic belief systems in syncretic religious systems.  A modern-day religion of Indonesia, Kebatinan was created around the sixteenth century by combining Buddhist, Animistic, Hindu, and Islamic. This religion mainly followed the beliefs and practices of Sufi. 

As soon as the Abbasid period ended, the Muslim rule from Arabs came to an end. Meanwhile, some Muslim leaders like Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, Mongol, and Afghan leaders remained in their power in some places like modern-day Turney and modern-day northern India.  

This Islam culture was also spread in modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia. The Persian Safavid and Turkish Ottoman empires neither belonged to Arab nor belonged to Islamic culture.

The Islamic culture reached vast geographical locations through Missionaries and political expansion. The travellers and trades also supported the spread of Islamic culture. Caravans were used as camels for transporting their goods across the land and played an important role in the spread of Islamic culture. The first caliphs played a predominant role in the expansion of the empire and allowed the Abbasids and other powers to spread their civilization. 

Also, this enriched their culture by linking provinces from the places located far away from them. Caravans had an advanced road network, which helped soldiers, pilgrims, envoys, merchants and scholars travel vast territories. Merchant communities also developed through trade routes. Muslims took over the control of the western silk road and got influenced by trans-Saharan trade routes. Muslims also have powerful entities in maritime trade like the Persian Gulf,  Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.

So, these trade relationships with various parts of the world helped Islamic culture to spread in vast areas. As Islam have a strong cultural influence, they sustained and developed their religion in various parts. Later, Islam developed as internationalism and multiculturalism. The cultural exchange created more sensible changes in the Islamic culture and made the world think in a new way. This new cultural relationship also helped to transfer science and technology and other cultural forms. The interaction between the Tang dynasty and Arab Muslims helped for the transformation of paper technology.  Later, this was spread around the world through the spread of Islamic Culture. 

Conclusion

This article explained how the Islamic culture spread worldwide and the advantages of the spread of Islamic culture, and all other details. Whenever any religion spread from one part to another part of the world, generally regional interpretations could be seen and thus similar interpretations were also seen during the spread of Islam.